Process of fusing and purifying metals.



W. S. ROGKEY & H. ELDRIDGE PROCESS OF FUSING AND PURIPYING METALS.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 15, 1911.

1,057,882, Patented Apr. 1, 1913.

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whims. s. nocxnY AND HILLIARY ELDRIDGE, on NEW xonx, N. Y., assrcnons TO METALLURGICAL RESEARCH oomrm, A conrona'rron or ARIZONA.

Specification of Letters Patent.

I Application filed May 15, 1911. Serial No. 627,189.

To all whom it may concern Be it lmown that we, WALTER S. Rooxnr and HILLIARY .ELDRIDGE, citizens of the United States, both residing at New York,

in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Process of Fusing and Purifying Metals, of which the following is a full, clear, andexact specification;

This invention relates to the fusion of metals such as copper and particularly to .thefusionof electrolytic copper and to the of highly heated gases, products of combus-- tion and products of gaseous and vapor decomposition which are produced by the burning of a carbonaceous, or a' h'ydro-car bonfuel, and protecting said metal after it has been fusedfrom oxidation by-an atmosphere of the gases and other-products genrated. from the combustion of said fuel as more fully hereinafter set forth, while the molten metal is flowing from the fusion chamber vtothe ladlep and also wh le :the'

metal is flowing into. said ladle and also while the metal is being poured from the ladle into casting molds. p

A-further object of our invention is to purify thecopper, or metal being treated,

' by exposing" it while in this molten condition not only to'the protective but also to the reducing action of gases upon cuprous compounds by the products of combustion and gaseous and vapor decomposition such as carbon monoxidfrhydrogen. and carbon,

which may result om imperfect combustion of the fuel, or may be admitted to the fusing chamberby separate means in-case it is desirable to use a reducing flame secured by a perfect combustion of the fuel;

We have found that when thecopper is acted upon by fuel which has been com,

pletely burned or if there is an excess of air.

or oxygen present, the gases do not act upon the copper to reduce the oxids, and it 1s therefore necessary to have an excess of hydro-carbon gases present to act upon and reduce the oxids. These gases may be introduced with the fuel or the gases may be incompletely burned, thereby furnishing reducing gases necessary to purify the metal and properly effect the reduction.

Inthe following specification it will be understood that our process may be used for fusing and purlfying certain other I Patented Apr. 1, 1913.

metals other than copper, but in describing. v

the process we will take copper as an example by which to illustrate our improvement in this art.

It has been found that electrolytic copper, which is of a high degree of purity, is contaminated by oxygen in the fusing op-- eration where the oxygen is permitted to come in contact with theicopper during said operation, forming high and low oxids of copper such as 0110- and Cu O. By ourv process, these impurities derived from the oxygen during fusion are eliminated by the reducing action of carbon and carbon monoxid and hydrogen which are the products of combustion and gaseous and vapor decomposition, thereby providing a cheap process of fusing the metal in the open flame, and thereafter protecting the molten metal by inert gases such as carbon dioxid and purifying same by the reducing-action of the products of combustion, carbon monoxid or the products of decomposition, hydrogen and carbon, or if erfe'ct combus:

tion of the fuel can be attained within the fusing chamber and no surplus of oxygen is admitted thereto during the fusing of the copper, areducing flame may be formed in which the copper is fused and the inert gases generated will protect the fused copper and prevent ingress of the outer atmosphere, so that thecopper may be conducted from the fusing chamber through the flue chamber, and into the ladle under the pro- .tection of said inert gases, thereby effectually preventing the oxygen of the atmosphere from coming into contact with the copper until the copper has been flowed from the ladle and into the casting molds.

The process consists in locating and fusing the copper on a hearth in a fuel flame and atmosphere of incandescent and burning gases, products of combustion and products of gaseous and vapor decomposition and then flowing said copper during and after fusion as may be'desired away and from said hearth out'through a downward oxidation, by the said flame, incandescent and burning gases, products of combustion and products of gaseous and vapor decomposition, and is also purified by the reduction of contained or occluded impurities by the reducing properties of said products of combustion such as carbon monoxid, and the products of gaseous and vapor decomposition such as hydrogen and carbon. This protection and purification of the fused flowing copper continues by reason of the ac-- companying protective covering of the said flame, incandescent and burning gases, prodnets of combustion and the products of gaseous and vapor decomposition, to the point of emergence from the said conduit flue or chimney and beyond to the copper receiving ladle into which the flowing fused copper, flame, incandescent and burning gases, prod ucts of combustion, products of gaseous and vapor decomposition, are discharged or precipitated together or simultaneously upon emergence from the conduit flue or chimney Referring to the drawings which form a part of this specification, Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional view through the furnace in which the process is carried out, and

'- Fig. 2 is a plane view of said furnace, a

portion of the hood cross section.

In carrying out this process, we first proof which is shown in vide a fusing furnace a modification of which is shown in the annexed drawing and which is constructed of material such as silica which is refractory to heat and neutral to fused copper, and the reducing action of combustion and gaseous and vapor decomposition products. The drawing discloses a furnace which is provided with openings AA for fuel supply, a feeding orifice B, for insertion of copper, and a fusing hearth C, and a conduit flue or chimney D. A ladle E isshown for receiving the molten copper, flame and other products as previously described, and also a hood F, for carrying off the combustion products after they leave the ladle. The process consists in simply heating the interior of the furnace by means of the fuel supply burners GG, then feeding the copper through the orifice B into the furnace. and on to the fusing hearth C, where it is fused, and then flowing the'fused copper away from the hearth and out through and out of conduit flue or chimney D and orifice H, into ladle E, the

products of combustion from thence passing off upward through the hood F, to the outer atmosphere; the orifice H may be opened by removing the plug or tap I to allow the copper to flow out of the furnace into the ladle E. The end cap J is a loose piece fitted into the end of the furnace and serves to deflect the gases, etc., downward over the flowing metal as it enters the ladle which protects the metal from the atmosphere.

Having thus described our invention what we claim as new is:

l. The process of fusing and purifying copper consisting in melting the copper in a fusing chamber by a hydro-carbon fuelflame carrying an excess of hydro-carbon, and.

then leading the fused copper from the fusing chamber together with and under the protection of the gases generated in the fusing chamber and in the presence of the prod nets of gaseous and vapor decomposition in' the fusing chamber to cause them to act on the oxide of copper to reduce the same.

2. The process of fusing copper consisting in melting copper in a fusing chamber by a hydro-carbon fuel flame and then leading the fused copper from the fusing chamber into a ladle together with and under the protection of gases generated in the fusing chamber by the combustion of the fuel and causing the said gases and other products to act on the said copper while and during the period that the copper is flowing througli the chamber into the ladle.

3. The process of fusing and refining copper consisting in melting same in a fusing chamber by a fuel flame of incandescent and burning gases, and then flowing said copper during and after fusion through and out of the fusing chamber simultaneously with and beneath the protective and reducing covering of said fuel flame, incandescent and burning gases, products of combustion and products of gaseous and vapor decomposition to cause the said products to act upon the oXids and other impurities contained in the copper, thereby purifying and protecting the fused copper from contamination and oxidation to the point of emergence from the furnace.

4. The process of fusing copper consisting in melting copper in a fusing chamber by a hydro-carbon fuel flame, and then leading the fused copper from the fusing chamber into a ladle under the projection of gases from the fusing chamber.

5. The process of fusing co per consisting in melting the cop er in af iising chamber by a hydro-carbon uel flame, and then leading the copper after fusion into a ladle beneath the protective covering of the gases and other products generated in the fusing chamber.

6. The process of fusing and refining copper consisting in fusing same in a fuel flame of incandescent and burning gases, and then flowing said copper after fusion into a ladle beneath the protective and reducing covering of said fuel flame, incandescent and burning gases, products of combustion, and products of gaseous and vapor decomposi tion, to cause the said gases and vapors and other products to act on the im urities contained in the copper to purify t e same and to prevent oxygen from coming in contact with the copper during the process. 7 The process of. fusing and refining metal conslsting in melting same in a fusing chamber by a fuel flame of incandescent and burning gases, and then flowing said metal during and after fusion through and out of the fusing chamber into a ladle simultaneously with and beneath the protective and reducing covering of said fuel flame, incandescent and burning gases, products of combustion and products of gaseous and vapor decomposition to cause the said products to act upon the oxids and other impurities contained in the metal, thereby purifying and protecting the fused metal from contamination and oin'dation to the point of emergence from the furnace and into the ladle.

8. The process of fusing and refining metal consisting in melting same in a fusing chamber by hydro-carbon'fuel flame of incandescent and burning gases, and then flowing said metal during and after fusion through and out of the fusing chamber into a ladle simultaneously with and beneath the protective and reducing covering of said carbonaceous or hydro-carbon fuel flame, incandescent and burning gases, products of combustion and products of gaseous and consists in melting cathode copper 1n a reducing atmosphere, and discharging the melted copper beneath a shield formed by the reducing atmosphere.

11. The process of treating copper, which consists in continuously melting cathode copper by exposing it to the highly heated gases of combustion of a fluid hydrocarbon, and preventing oxidation of the molten product while being discharged by discharging the molten product together with a shield of reducing atmosphere in contact with the surface adapted to be exposed.

12. The process of treating copper, which consists in continuously melting a quantity of copper in a reducing atmosphere, and continuously removing the melted product together with a shield of reducing gases adapted'to prevent, oxidation of the metal being removed,

13. The process of treating copper,'wh1ch consists in melting copper by exposing it to the highly heated gases of combustion of a hydrocarbon fuel, and continuously removing the liquid productbeneath a shield of reducing atmosphere in contact with the molten metal.

In testimony whereof, we afiix our signa- I tures, in presence of two witnesses.

WALTER s. ROCKEY.

HILLIARY ELDRIDGE. 

